14 October 2011

Divine Humanity and Sexuality

From the earliest of times, there have been people, cultures and religions that have attempted to divorce humanity from the divine. As a Christian I was taught that I am created in the image of God. Wow. Think about that. Me in my crude and exotic human form a reflection of God? The Hebrew Scriptures declare this and the life of Jesus demonstrates it. But the Christian religious institution has not known what to do with it.

Early on, the dominant Christian consciousness was that spirit is good and body is bad. Therefore, deny the impulses and passions of the body and you will be holy. But Jesus’ life seems to communicate something different.

Jesus. God incarnate. He lived a passionate human life—embracing and celebrating the human experience. He seemed to enjoy good food and wine. He attended parties and hung out with the so-called “sinners” of the day (who were probably known to have had the most fun). He valued relationships and seemed to have had some intimate ones with the Apostle John, Lazarus, Mary of Bethany, Martha and Mary of Magdalene. We don’t know if Jesus engaged in sexual activity. All we know is that he was “without sin.”

In our Western culture people are obsessed with sex. They’re either sexually repressed or sexually indulgent. And “sin” that gets the most attention is sexual. Is there not a middle way for expressing healthy, holy sexuality; neither denying our passions nor pandering to our every impulse? Self-control after all is a fruit of the spirit. But God is love and some of the greatest expressions of love come in a sexual nature.

So what are we to make of our sexuality? Is it good? Bad? Ugly? Are our passions to be celebrated within the context of marriage but wrought with shame in other contexts? Is God to be found in our extra-marital sexual passions or only the devil? How in fact do we live true to our divinely human nature that is indeed sexual?

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